Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputys Gabriela Ververa, left, and Gladys Meyer switch shifts at the Temple Sheriff’s Station in Temple City. The Temple station has the highest percentage of women police officers out of the agency’s 23 stations.
(Staff Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz)

TEMPLE CITY – The number of female sworn officers in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has slowly risen, in part because of a consent decree prompted by a federal lawsuit.

In 1998, there were 1,102 female sworn officers in the department. Today, 1,566 out of 9,724 are female.

Officials said they also have brought the department up to standards on sexual harassment policies and eliminating gender bias concerns.

“There have definitely been changes,” said Temple Station Lt. Sheila Sanchez, who has been employed with the department for 30 years. “But I believe the department was well on (its) way long before any federal mandates required percentages.”

The number of sworn female officers within the Sheriff’s Department – at 16 percent – is at an all-time high. But the department has continued to grapple with a 15-year-old consent decree that was meant to address gender bias and equal employment opportunity.

The decree was mandated after a judge in 1988 ruled in favor of Deputy Susan Bouman, who claimed that she was not promoted to sergeant because of gender discrimination.

Bouman could not be reached for comment, and her attorneys did not return calls.

Temple Station Capt. Richard Shaw said when he first went on patrol, there were female deputies, but it was very rare to see females as sergeants, lieutenants or captains.

“Over the years,” said Shaw, who has been with the department for 30 years, “there have been significant strides to increase the number of women in supervisorial and management positions.”

Even today, only two of the four parts of the consent decree have been resolved.

“We were found guilty of gender discrimination as a result of this lawsuit and claim,” said Cmdr. Lynda Castro. “The consent decree is the court’s way of saying that you will remain under the court purview until you can demonstrate compliance.”

In 1993, after the department lost its appeal to the 1988 decision, a federal court issued a consent decree. The court called for the department to develop a sergeant, entry level and coveted position selection process, and establish and implement a sexual harassment policy.

“Until the Sheriff’s Department can demonstrate and receive verification that they have acknowledged their compliance, you remain under their purview,” Castro said.

Castro described the department’s initial efforts to comply with the consent decree as “uninspired.”

“We did what we thought was appropriate, but we really didn’t have our heart and soul into it,” Castro said. “When (Lee Baca) became sheriff in 1998, he said, `Why are we not finished with this?”‘

The department has complied with two out of the four consent decree stipulations, officials said. The most recent resolution addressing sexual harassment training was settled in September. The department will be under review for that portion of the consent decree until 2009, court records show.

“We’ve got two of the four sections pretty much taken care of,” Castro said. “And it will likely be in the next few months that we will have a working agreement to move forward” with the other portions of the consent decree.

Lt. Joseph Fennell said since the decree, there have been aggressive recruiting methods targeting women, especially in the past two years. As a result, the numbers of women have increased.

In 2005, the department hired 163 women and graduated 83 from the sheriff’s academy. In 2006, 250 were hired and 139 graduated. In 2007, 260 were hired and 202 graduated.

Area sheriff’s stations have seen an increase in the number of female sworn officers, officials said.

Temple Station has the highest percentage of female sworn officers in the department. Out of 171 sworn officers, 29 of them, or 17 percent, are women. In other San Gabriel Valley stations, those numbers fall, ranging from 16.5 percent in Norwalk to 6.3 percent in San Dimas.

“Temple Station has been fortunate to have a fairly significant number of female deputies for the better part of 10 years,” Shaw said. “I had nothing to do with the beginning of it. I would like to think that I have continued with the belief that Temple is a great place to work as a woman, and I am proud of the gender diversity.”

Temple Station Lt. Denise Harshman, 50, joined the department 33 years ago as a secretary.

“It’s acceptable now for women to be in patrol,” Harshman said. “When I came in, women in patrol was a new program.”

While male and female officers agree that it is more “acceptable” for women to be deputies and commanding officers, the number of female sworn officers within the department is still only 16 percent and females account for only 22 percent of the enrollment in the academy classes.

But that number is constantly increasing, Fennell said. Recently, they increased their goal from 22 percent to 25 percent enrollment in the academy classes.

Some female officers said the consent decree brought unwelcome attitudes as well.

“I would hear comments like, `Oh, you got promoted just because you were a female.’ I didn’t appreciate that,” said Sgt. Debra Hermon, 50. “I got my promotion based on merit.”

Hermon, who has been with the department for 27 years, said she has mixed feelings about the consent decree.

“The sheriff’s department has been very good to me,” Hermon said. “But I’m not sure how I feel about the consent decree. It’s like people want you as a female so that you could be a number of a list.”

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